Wind, snow or shine, students and faculty have to trek across campus to their classrooms; class delays and cancellations are rarities at Washington State University.

But just days before Pullman emptied for Thanksgiving break, wind defied that trend.

Campus delayed all nonessential activities for half a day as the result of hurricane force winds that rocked most of eastern Washington.

The university has not suspended operations for more than a day and a half in the last five years, said Michael Gaffney, director of the Office of Emergency Management. The wind storm was an extreme circumstance, shutting down two thirds of the power feeder lines WSU draws from.

Gaffney and other university employees were working to manage power and restore it on campus. Outages began around 7 p.m. on Nov. 17, and continued throughout the night as trees were uprooted and power lines torn down.

“We plan for all sorts of emergencies, power crises being one of them,” Gaffney said. “The response had to be swift, but we were dealing with a high-demand event.”

Engineers and emergency responders activated emergency protocols and began fixing the damaged feeder lines first.

“In the event of power outages, the top-priority power systems are what are considered ‘life critical’ systems,” said Craig Cole, director of Construction Services and Facilities Operations. “Alarms, regulation systems, security, emergency lights and backup elevator systems are considered vital and top priority, and those are powered first and foremost by what power we have left.”

Students in residence halls at WSU reported that personal lighting, outlets, and even some elevators remained powerless for a few hours later. During that time, the feeder lines’ power supply was redirected to draw from the WSU Steam Generators.

Power to all systems on WSU’s Pullman campus had returned by the morning after the storm, but there were concerns about ensuring the reliability of the systems before adding to the load.

“Overnight we were able to resume normal power usage by using the steam generators, but we wanted to ensure that the added stress of normal day to day activity wouldn’t cause any problems,” said Gaffney.

Facilities Operations was completely off the generators by Friday morning.

Meanwhile, nearly 50 percent of Avista Utilities’ customers waited for Avista to systematically restore their electricity, and 180,000 reportedly lost power in eastern Washington, the majority in Spokane County.

Mutual aid and contract workers from six western states and British Columbia worked to recover from the damage inflicted by the windstorm. Avista restored power to all of its customers Friday, nearly a week after the storm.

“I’m extremely grateful for our customers’ patience and perseverance throughout this unprecedented storm,” said Avista Chairman, President and CEO Scott Morris in a press release. “The outpouring of support for the crews who worked round-the-clock to restore service has been amazing and very much appreciated.”

The physical damage to Pullman’s WSU campus alone is estimated to have been between $200,000 – $300,000, not accounting for WSU Spokane, which still has figures coming in and received a much harsher storm, or any materials damaged or destroyed by the sudden loss of power.

As extreme winter weather continues to leave its mark on the region, emergency personnel outside of Avista are working to ensure students and faculty understand what happens behind the scenes and are kept informed during extreme weather scenarios.

One of Gaffney’s top priorities for the future is to smoothly facilitate communication to students and faculty about emergency situations.

“WSU Alerts are vital to bringing updated information to students all over campus,” Gaffney said. “This incident proved that the system works, but our job is to bring information faster to students.”